1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an educational device and, more specifically, to a teaching aid designed to help a child tie a bow.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Teaching a child to tie a bow, such as required when tying shoelaces, can be a frustrating experience for many children. The same is true for retarded and mentally handicapped persons regardless of age. The learning comes through repeated trial and experience based on personal instruction by a teacher, generally in the kindergarten level of elementary education.
Children can also be shown pictures, slides or film illustrating the various stages of tying the bow. However, this has not proven to be a satisfactory technique for keeping the child's attention.
A problem often encountered in the teaching process is identifying and distinguishing the laces as left and right hand laces, particularly where the concept of left hand and right hand is not fully understood by the child. Even where the differences between left and right are understood, the laces respectively positioned on one side of the shoe become repositioned on the other or opposite side of the shoe during the tying procedure which contributes to the child's confusion. Accordingly, the designation of the shoelaces as a left lace and a right lace in the teaching process also is not entirely satisfactory.
Still another technique involves utilizing a device, such as a toy wooden shoe, having a pair of shoelaces attached thereto on which a child can practice. The problem encountered with this technique is that it does little in teaching the child how to form the loops necessary in tying the bow.
The present invention improves on the heretofore known techniques in providing an educational device which incorporates an artistic image of an animal familiar to the child, and which is provided with color coded indicia and colored laces. The colored laces are positioned in a match-up relation with the color coded indicia to teach the child how to form the loops and tie the shoelaces in a manner hereinafter described.